Anne Bargiello, age 10, of Brockville, nt., for her question:

Who saw bacteria first?

Bacteria are so small that they must be seen under a microscope. So they were not discovered until after the microscope was invented. This was some 300 years ago. The first person to say and identify bacteria as living creatures was, of all things, a Sheriff's Chamberlain. That, to be sure, sounds like sound scientific police work of a high order. Actually, that was not quite so. For this discoverer of bacteria was also a haberdasher and a hobbyist. His hobby was making and using the new fangled microscope.

This busy fellow enjoyed life in the little town of Delft, Holland. His discoveries were made around the sixteen hundreds. His name was Anthony Van Levuwenhoek and he was a very thorough worker. He made notes and drawings of the wriggly little creatures he saw under his microscope and sent these records to well known scientists of his day.

Van Levuwenhoek did not name his little creatures bacteria. He knew they were alive and therefore members of the great Animal kingdom. He called them animalculae, anteing little animals.